Defence
SOME residents of Narayi community, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Saturday commended Connected Development (CODE), an NGO, for mobilising citizens in the state to monitor government projects.
The residents gave the commendation in Kaduna, at a one-day Town Hall Meeting organised by CODE, to address issues emanating from delivery of constituency projects in the state.
The Village Head of the community, Mr Sale Sule, said that mobilising the residents to get involved in the design and implementation of constituency projects was very crucial.
According to him, citizens’ involvement in the design and execution of constituency and other development projects will ensure that government spending meets the people’s development yearning.
Sale, who was represented by a Ward Head, Mr Joseph Wyorkson, stated that most times government projects were executed without consultation for the inputs of the benefitting communities.
“For example, there is a sports facility that was constructed in Government Secondary School, Narayi.
“We were not consulted, and we did not know what the project was for or who was implementing the project.
“We did not even know that the facility was being constructed in our school until the day of the inauguration.
“That was when we knew it was facilitated by Sen. Uba Sani, representing Kaduna Central.
Another resident, Mrs Esther Peter, a nursing mother, said government should consult them to get their buy-in before siting a project in the community.
She said that this would ensure such projects met their needs.
Peter explained that the meeting had opened their eyes to the need to pay attention to government spending in their communities to ensure value for money.
Also, a youth in the community, Aliyu Abduljabbi, said that the youths would no longer stand on the sideline but would take steps to engage the constituency project nomination and implementation processes.
Earlier, CODE’s Community Monitoring Team in the Area, Ms Fatima Auta, explained that the meeting was organised to address issues regarding constituency project implementation.
Auta added that the gathering was also to build synergy between the community members and government officials, and promote gender-responsive service delivery on constituency project implementation.
“The meeting was equally organised to sensitise community members to the adopted project nomination and monitoring tools, and how to engage the right authority with the collated information.
“We also want to enlighten community members on how to engage government officials and how to write a request for information, using the Freedom of Information Act,” she said.
Ms Zaraphat Haruna, Project Assistant, CODE, explained that the town hall was under the “Deepening Citizens Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices” project.
Haruna explained that the project was being implemented in the state with support from MacArthur Foundation, to empower citizens with the necessary data needed to address institutional corruption crippling various sectors in Nigeria.
“The project seeks to also address ineffective delivery of constituency projects with a view to improving the quality of service delivery in Kaduna State,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that similar meetings were held in 15 communities across the 23 LGAs in Kaduna State. (NAN)
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Tags: Aliyu Abduljabbi CODE Esther Peter Fatima Auta Joseph Wyorkson Sale Sule
